1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the manufacture of jewelry and, more particularly, relates to the setting of stones in jewelry.
2. Description of the Related Art
Decorative stones are frequently secured to jewelry such as rings, earrings, bracelets, watches, necklace, broaches and other items. These stones may be precious or semiprecious gemstones, or may be glass or synthetic materials that are secured in place in settings using formed meal or metal projections that extend over the top of the stone table to hold the stone against a seat. Frequently, the formed metal is in the form of a set edge. The set edge extends around the setting and is configured to roll over the top of the stone table to secure the stone in the setting. The techniques for rolling a set edge over the top of the stone table have typically required skilled labor and have been time intensive.
It is desirable to be able to set a large number of stones in a short amount of time and with a fairly low degree of skill in order to reduce costs and increase related profits and production rates. This is especially true where large numbers of similar or identical gemstones are mounted in identical settings in jewelry manufacturing operations. The degree of skill that is required for the setting has hampered development of cost effective large scale stone mounting operations. Merely working faster and in larger numbers leads to mistakes and inaccuracies that degrade the jewelry quality. Therefore, a need exists to mechanize or automate the stone mounting process for jewelry settings in terms of preparing a properly dimensioned and centered seat, and swaging a stone in the center of the seat. These and related problems have prevented the development of faster, high precision, high quality, lower cost, stone mounting for large volumes of stones.
A mechanized cone setter has been used in the past to set base stones in jewelry. However, each shape and size of stone requires a particular sized and shaped setting die to set the stone. Once the die is selected the ring is placed in an arbor and the arbor is placed in the cone setting machine. The setting die is mounted in a ram directly above the ring. The stone and shims are positioned in the ring below the die. The die is then repeatedly forced over the stone to contact the set edge and to thereby, set the stone. Selection of the proper die typically requires skilled and knowledgeable workers as does the general assembly of the components of the cone setting machine. The use of skilled workers generally increases manufacturing costs. In addition, the repeated hammering action of the die being forced onto the ring by the ram can break the stones. Stones can be expensive and, therefore, the destruction of stones can dramatically increase the cost of manufacture. Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus and method for setting base stones that does not require substantial skill and that minimizes the breaking of stones during manufacture.